Pocket App Review

Pocket allows to save and read articles and watch videos later

Pocket is a popular ‘Read it Later’ app, allowing you to save articles, videos, or shareable material from other apps for later viewing.

Very much in the same vein as Instapaper, Pocket differentiates itself from its main competitors by focusing on the ability to share saved content socially and also by providing greater support for embedded multimedia.

Pocket App – Overview

Goal – The main purpose of Pocket (visit website) is to allow casual readers to quickly and easily store content for later use. Once you create an account, you can add web pages by copying the appropriate URL to your clipboard and then pasting it into Pocket (in fact, it will automatically detect a URL on the clipboard and suggest that you save it).

Share – Another option is to use the ‘Share’ option from the context menu in iOS or Android; this method is also how you’ll save videos and audio for later. Alternatively, there are a wide variety of options for saving – and accessing – content for desktop users, too.

Pocket Features

App Integration

Pocket‘s flexible API means that it‘s already been implemented in over 1,500 apps. So, if you see something you like when using apps like Twitter, Flipboard, Dolphin Browser, Digg, Feedly, Alien Blue, or Zeit, you can easily save it to your Pocket with the tags that are going to help you find it when you need it later.

While this does make the process of saving content easier, you can always try to use your device’s ‘Share’ option as noted above. In 99% of cases this works as expected, but you may encounter the odd hiccup trying to save content from apps which don’t officially support the Pocket app.

Tagging System

In stark contrast to Instapaper’s somewhat clunky folder-based storage system (which only allows you to save an article in one specific folder), Pocket uses the much more modern and versatile tagging approach.

This makes a lot of sense, as sometimes you‘ll want to store things into two different categories (for example, you might choose to store an article about cheap kitchen utensils under both “cooking” and “frugal purchases”, or to tag an article about Photoshop tutorials under “computer stuff” and “image editing”).

Kobo Compatibility

The app also features in-built Kobo compatibility. While the Kobo is, of course, the lesser-known eReader, this is a fantastic function for those readers who happen to own one of them. Once you set up Pocket on your device, it will present you with your 50 most recently tagged articles, and you also have the option to download any older ones with a single tap.

Desktop or Mobile

There are a wide range of options for using the app in your day-to-day life. Whether you‘re using your smartphone, or tablet – or if you‘ve left either one at home – you can still continue to save interesting finds by using the app’s official Firefox add-on, the desktop client for Mac, or even by emailing content to your designated Pocket email address (which will be set up when you‘re creating your account).

Likewise, you can access your saved content – and browse it by tags – from mobile devices or your desktop browser at any time. The variety of options you have to save and access content with Pocket means that it can easily become part of your daily reading habits, no matter how you’re accessing your saved content.

Pocket Premium

More features – There‘s also a premium option available, which – as you would expect – provides you with a wider range of features to make your app experience even easier. For just under $44.99 per year – or $4.99 per month – the app will no longer be ad-supported, meaning that you can enjoy a more fluid, uninterrupted reading experience.

Library – Premium customers also gain access to a very neat Permanent Library feature, which not only stores the URL which points to the content you were viewing, but also saves the actual content itself. This means that – even if the page or article undergoes any changes in the future – you will always be able to refer back to the version which you originally saved.

Tags – Beyond that, there are also a number of premium features which are designed to make using the app and finding the things you‘re looking for much easier; for example, there‘s a Suggested Tags function which not only gives you ideas on how to save articles and other media, but also becomes more intelligent as you use the app and learns precisely what it is that interests you, then suggests tags based on that when saving future content.

Search – You’ll also be able to use the advanced search to quickly scour through your stored material, and search within the material itself. So, while the free version of Pocket is certainly more than functional, shelling out the extra cash to support the developers is going to provide you with the best possible experience you can have with the app.

Pocket App Review – The Verdict

Pocket manages to shine in many of the areas where Instapaper doesn’t; the concentrated effort of the creators to provide an experience which tries (and succeeds) to be accommodating of multimedia as well as straight-up text means that this it will be a genuinely great choice for those of you who are less focused on a serious reading experience, and more interested in getting the most out of your favorite articles.